Pop-ups ask a lot of you, and that’s what makes them so charming, so distinct from proper restaurants. Maybe that’s the masochist in me, but it’s exciting to suffer a little in order to experience cooking in a purer, more personal form unaffected by the demands of appealing to a broader audience.

At least, that’s the romantic spin on what usually ensues. You may find yourself waiting for an hour or more for tacos grilled under a tent or greeted by a frazzled host who has never worked at a restaurant before. But the absence of the trappings of typical restaurants can make the whole experience more intimate, more imperfectly human. It reminds us of why it’s so special for people to cook for others in the first place.

To that end, these are the pop-ups that embody the best of that sentiment. Some show up at a fixed location every week while others jump around the bay.While some have regular hours and a set location, others are more nomadic, and you’ll need to check their Instagram to find them. Just think of the journey as part of the fun.

Gooey and crisp quesabirria tacos — in which slow-cooked beef bits are spackled together by melted cheese, all within grilled tortillas tinted orange from chile-beef consomme — are the only thing you can get at this outdoors pop-up, which recently moved from the Montano family’s residential driveway to the patios of bars like Temescal Brewing in Oakland and Armistice Brewing in Richmond. The pleasure here lies in the riot of textures: raw bite from minced onion, pliant crunch from the cheese shreds that hit the grill, and the deeply juicy filling of beef and cheese. Thanks to the pop-up’s runaway popularity, a brick-and-mortar by the Richmond BART Station is forthcoming.

Trans people of color eat for free at this pop-up by Sofi Espice, one-half of the duo that previously ran the popular Hella Vegan Eats in Oakland, a pop-up that made its name on breakfast burritos and fried “chicken.” Community building is the purpose behind Gay4U, which donates shares of food and profits to local homeless encampments and LGBTQ organizations. One notable highlight of the a la carte menu of vegan sandwiches, snacks and burritos is the chicken and waffle burger: While it lacks both chicken and gluten, the soy-based, schnitzel-like fillet is spiced like a proper piece of fried bird.

This migratory pop-up by food industry veterans Marcelle and Christopher Yang is all about crafting a vision of Taiwanese cuisine and street food made from produce sourced primarily from Radical Family Farms in Sebastapol. The meals open with an assortment of Chinese-style pickles made from seasonal vegetables, and char siu pork belly is served with fresh greens from the farm for wrapping. The pop-up’s sold-out debut at Nyum Bai in Oakland featured an eye-widening dessert soup of coconut milk topped with beads of tapioca, pastel tangyuan dumplings of purple taro and golden butternut squash, and jam made from local pluots.

We love a good brunch in San Francisco, but few have a take on the meal as intensely as the team behind Hilda and Jesse, which began this year as a regular pop-up at the now-closed Marla Bakery in San Francisco’s Richmond District. $45 nets you three stunning takes on classic breakfast dishes: a play on tomatoes and eggs with a Japanese-style omelet and Early Girl tomato terrine; a gourmet take on the elliptical McDonald’s crispy hash brown; and oatmeal reimagined as sweet fritters with rye ice cream.

In the lead-up to the opening of its brick-and-mortar space in Oakland, this project by S + M Vegan impresses vegans and omnivores alike with aunique menu that combines the founders’ respective expertise in Singaporean and Italian flavors. Each Tuesday brings a different menu of treats, such as a sandwich of delicious fillings like stewed yuba and pickled green chile sambal, fried arancini stuffed with pumpkin, peanut and chiles, and stir-fried flat rice noodles with vegan Chinese sweet sausage and mushrooms.

Soleil Ho’s tenure as The Chronicle's Restaurant Critic began in 2019. She was previously a freelance food and pop culture writer, a podcast maker, and restaurant chef. Her seminal work, the Racist Sandwich podcast, covered the myriad ways in which food intersects with race, class, and gender. Illustration courtesy of Wendy Xu.